WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump “inspired his supporters to commit acts of physical violence” on January 6, 2021 and would have been convicted if the case went to trial, special counsel Jack Smith said in a report on his investigation that was released on Tuesday morning.
The 170-page report was sent to Congress and released just after midnight, detailing Smith’s investigation into Trump’s efforts to stay in power after he lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden, which led to the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Smith defended his investigation and said his conduct was free of partisan influence, and vital to the aspirations of the justice system.
“While we were not able to bring the cases we charged to trial, I believe the fact that our team stood up for the rule of law matters. I believe the example our team set for others to fight for justice without regard for the personal costs matters. The facts, as we uncovered them in our investigation and as set forth in my Report, matter,” Smith wrote.
Smith also wrote if it wasn’t for Trump’s election win in November that prevented the prosecution from moving forward — the case would have ended with Trump being convicted.
“Indeed, but for Mr. Trump’s election and imminent return to the Presidency, the Office assessed that the admissible evidence was sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction at trial,” Smith’s report stated.
Smith said he determined Trump spread claims that were “demonstrably and, in many cases, obviously false” and that “Trump knew that there was no outcome-determinative fraud in the 2020 election, that many of the specific claims that he made were untrue, and that he had lost the election.”
In his letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, Smith wrote his entire case was guided by the principle that the United States is a “government of laws, and not of men” and that no “man in this country is so high that he is above the law.”
As set forth in my Report, after conducting thorough investigations, I found that, with respect to both Mr. Trump’s unprecedented efforts to unlawfully retain power after losing the 2020 election and his unlawful retention of classified documents after leaving office, the Principles compelled prosecution. Indeed, Mr. Trump’s cases represented ones ‘in which the offense [was] the most flagrant, the public harm the greatest, and the proof the most certain,’” Smith wrote.
Smith directly addressed Trump’s claims and repeated allegations that his prosecution has been politically motivated.
“And to all who know me well, the claim from Mr. Trump that my decisions as a prosecutor were influenced or directed by the Biden administration or other political actors is, in a word, laughable,” Smith wrote.
Trump responded in a post on Truth Social, denying the claims and blamed the Democrats as well as President Joe Biden.
“Deranged Jack Smith was unable to successfully prosecute the Political Opponent of his “boss,” Crooked Joe Biden, so he ends up writing yet another “Report” based on information that the Unselect Committee of Political Hacks and Thugs ILLEGALLY DESTROYED AND DELETED, because it showed how totally innocent I was, and how completely guilty Nancy Pelosi, and others, were. Jack is a lamebrain prosecutor who was unable to get his case tried before the Election, which I won in a landslide,” he wrote.
The report brings to an end a chapter in American history that saw, for the first time, a former president indicted on federal charges only to be re-elected and, in a few days, returned to power.
